It seems like this is correct behavior: instead rules are expected to print responses themselves, and spontaneous NPC actions aren't expected to report failures. Based on the fact that you have a persuasion rule, perhaps you meant

WI 12.6 almost explains this; it points out that ``when such actions fail, they invoke no special set of rules.'' Perhaps it should further state that the check rules will not print any text—that would make this a documentation bug.

Note that, for cases where the author does want to generate an error message, try statements set the variable ``the reason the action failed'', which the instead/check rule or one of its callees can then consult.